Has any comic been as acclaimed as Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen? Possibly only Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but Watchmen remains the critics' favorite. Why? Because Moore is a better writer, and Watchmen a more complex and dark and literate creation than Miller's fantastic, subversive take on the Batman myth. Moore, renowned for many other of the genre's finest creations (Saga of the Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and From Hell, with Eddie Campbell) first put out Watchmen in 12 issues for DC in 1986-87. It won a comic award at the time (the 1987 Jack Kirby Comics Industry Awards for Best Writer/Artist combination) and has continued to gather praise since.

The story concerns a group called the Crimebusters and a plot to kill and discredit them. Moore's characterization is as sophisticated as any novel's. Importantly the costumes do not get in the way of the storytelling; rather they allow Moore to investigate issues of power and control--indeed it was Watchmen, and to a lesser extent Dark Knight, that propelled the comic genre forward, making "adult" comics a reality. The artwork of Gibbons (best known for 2000AD's Rogue Trooper and DC's Green Lantern) is very fine too, echoing Moore's paranoid mood perfectly throughout. Packed with symbolism, some of the overlying themes (arms control, nuclear threat, vigilantes) have dated but the intelligent social and political commentary, the structure of the story itself, its intertextuality (chapters appended with excerpts from other "works" and "studies" on Moore's characters, or with excerpts from another comic book being read by a child within the story), the finepace of the writing and its humanity mean that Watchmen more than stands up--it keeps its crown as the best the genre has yet produced. --Mark Thwaite

阿兰•摩尔（Alan Moore）是图画小说史上最受欢迎的作家之一,他创作的《守望者》《V字仇杀队》《来自地狱》《奇迹人》以及《沼泽怪物》等许多作品均获得了漫画界的各大奖项。同时他策划了全美最佳漫画公司的整个产品线,包括《汤姆•斯壮》《十佳警队》《明日奇谈》和《普罗米修斯》等。作为20世纪80年代引领美国漫画变革的主要人物之一,他影响了许多漫画创作者。他现居住于英格兰中部。

戴夫•吉本斯（Dave Gibbons）于1973年开始自己的漫画职业生涯。他长期参与英国著名漫画杂志《公元2000》的创作,担任多个知名子系列的画师,如《哈林群英》《丹•戴尔》《侠盗骑兵》等。他还曾参与创作过《神秘博士》的漫画。1982年,吉本斯开始为DC漫画公司工作,在当时的《绿灯侠》连载担任画师。随后他又参与了DC漫画公司许多主要角色的编写与绘制,包括超人和蝙蝠侠。吉本斯最新完成的一部图画小说《独一无二》,由DC漫画的子公司Vertigo漫画出品,他全权负责了整个创作的过程。

王周凌 笔名Dopeman,接触美漫多年,对近代和现代欧美主流文化和次文化感兴趣,读漫画的乐趣之一是透过漫画了解其背后隐藏的文化信息。他早年曾在德国留学,现居杭州。